The following is an article about the Brooklyn Blogfest 2011 by Samuel Newhouse of The Brooklyn Eagle:

Who are bloggers, exactly? Well, they’re people who love to write about the little things that matter to them — whether it’s the unique behavior of a homeless person on the sidewalk or talking about how to bake the “Lazy Day” cake.

No one’s sure whether it’s the Brooklyn magic that makes borough residents blog about their day-to-day thoughts and observations or vice versa. But at the 2011 Sixth Annual Brooklyn Blogfest at the Bell House in Park Slope, bloggers of all stripes were in attendance.

Cooking and restaurants are popular topics for blogs, as is Brooklyn’s thriving music scene. Many bloggers just write about their little observations of life.

Some are dedicated, daily bloggers, while others are infrequent gadabouts.

However, the blogfest’s keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, urged attendees to consider the enormous potential for “advocacy blogging” and “citizen journalism.” He believes there is an untapped market for commercial networks to post their ads on blogs that could make blogging a real career, thereby improving the blog “eco-system.”

“Our holy quest is to try to find ways to support your work as a business because we believe if we can support it, more will come,” said Jarvis, professor of media at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism. Jarvis said the decline of print media has left, for example, dozens of former Star-Ledger journalists unemployed in northern New Jersey. Ironically, their area is woefully undercovered in media.

If there was a commercially viable way for these writers to cover their neighborhoods and make a living as “citizen journalists,” they would help the communities, Jarvis suggested, by providing in-depth coverage of everything from potholes to politics.

“The glory days of the Brooklyn Eagle are gone,” Jarvis said, possibly unaware of this paper’s existence. “You are the new Brooklyn Eagle.”

Speaking of the Brooklyn Eagle, read the rest of this article at that very newspaper’s website.

This year’s wonderful Photobloggers Tribute was produced/edited/and with music composed by Adrian Kinloch Click on the link and go to Brit in Brooklyn for this montage of photos of Brooklyn from some of the borough’s best photobloggers including images of Coney Island, Park Slope, Prospect Heights, Atlantic Yards and the Federation of Black Cowboys and more. The video features the work of Jonathan Barkey, Tracy Collins, Hugh Crawford, Atiba Edwards, Efrain John Gonzalez, Jill Harrison, Fank Jump, Adrian Kinloch, Nathan Kensinger, Heather Letzkus, Tom Martinez, Matthew Nedbalsky, Claude Scales, Eliot Wagner, Lara Wechsler and Barry Yanowitz.

2010 Photobloggers Tribute

2009 Photobloggers Tribute Part 1

2009 Photobloggers Tribute Part 2

2008 Photobloggers Tribute

I want to thank everyone who came out to the 6th Annual Brooklyn Blogfest last night. I really had a great time and I hope you did, too.

Much gratitude and appreciation goes to The Bell House. What an awesome venue, what a class act through and through. When I walked in at 4:30, the chairs were set up, the sound technician was good to go, and a lovely man named Kieran was there to facilitate whatever needed to be done. The woman at the box office was super great as were the bartenders and EVERYONE I came in contact with.

The Bell House is a special events producer’s DREAM COME TRUE. I can’t rave enough. I think they probably got sick of hearing me gush.

I must also thank Jeff Jarvis, our keynote speaker, who shared some very smart, interesting and thought provoking ideas about new business models for bloggers and journalists. We were lucky to have him. As one blogger said, “What a good grab.”

Thanks also to Max Robins, all the Blogs of a Feather facilitators, all the photographers in The Big Picture Video (which should be on You Tube today), all the volunteers, Atiba Edwards, Mike Sorgatz, Elizabeth Palmer, Adrian Kinloch, Gabriela Herman, Larry & Melissa Lopata, Sharrie Sutton, Lesley w, Marion Hart and Hugh Crawford, Charlotte Maier, Nancy Graham and everyone who came out.

A final note of thanks to Oaxaca, who brought deliriously delicious tacos to the event. If you don’t know the restaurant, it’s on Fourth Avenue between President and Carroll Street in Park Slope. The tacos, a choice of chicken, pork or potato (or all three as I had), were awesome. Their catering business (led by Jake) is delicious and dependable.

I’m trying to  compile a list of everyone who was there so if you were at The Bell House last night please send me an email louise_crawford(at)yahoo.com or a message on Facebook (friend me if we’re not friends).

Each year Blogfest has a different feeling, a different vibe. This year there was a palpable sense of comradaerie and community. It felt celebratory and fun.

I hope it inspired you in some way. I’m so happy you were there.

Now We Are Six by AA Milne

When I was One,
I had just begun.
When I was Two,
I was nearly new.
When I was Three
I was hardly me.
When I was Four,
I was not much more.
When I was Five,
I was just alive.
But now I am Six,
I’m as clever as clever,
So I think I’ll be six now for ever and ever.

Best, Louise

I hope you’ve got your tickets to this year’s Brooklyn Blogfest.

Last year the Brooklyn Blogfest made headlines, including  a special feature in the New York Times. Some called it a blast. Others called it a debacle. Some said it was a sell-out, others found it inspirational, fun, and a really good time.

Don’t you just LOVE controversy?

Find out what we do this year to top last year’s event, which featured Spike Lee, Lemon Anderson and all the flavored vodka you could drink.

Please buy your tickets today at the Bell House Website. We’re really looking forward to seeing on May 12th at 7:30PM.

“Where better to take the pulse of this rapidly growing community of writers, thinkers and observers than the Brooklyn Blogfest?” ~ Sewell Chan, The New York Times

Since it was founded in 2006, the Brooklyn Blogfest has established itself as the nexus of creativity, talent, and insight among the blogosphere’s brightest lights. This year will be no different as Blogfest presents keynote speaker, Jeff Jarvis, blog visionary and author of What Would Google Do? Jarvis blogs about media and news at Buzzmachine and is director of the interactive journalism program and the new business models for news project at CUNY’s Graduate School of Journalism.

Jarvis’ must-see presentation will focus on new business models for bloggers (in other words: how to make money blogging!!).

Blogfest is for bloggers, social networkers, journalists, creative entrepreneurs and those who want to start a blog. Whether you live by a blog, blog to live, live to blog (or are thinking of starting a blog) you’ll want to join us on May 12th.

Recently announced: a stunning opening video by award-winning photographer Gabriela Herman portraying bloggers at night lit  by the light of their screens (see photo above).  Also on tap: a video tribute to Brooklyn’s most visionary photo bloggers (by Adrian Kinloch of Brit in Brooklyn), Blogs Aloud (directed by Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls), special networking sessions for like-minded bloggers (i.e. Blogs of a Feather), and a roof-raising after-party with a cash bar, food and music!

Just announced: A complete list of the break-out groups, aka Blogs-of-a-Feather (see below):

1. Parenting with Nancy McDermott of Park Slope Parents

2. Advertising: Leader TBD

3. Place and/or Hyper-local Blogging: Dan Myers of Here is Park Slope and a writer from Sheepshead Bites

4. Photo & Video Blogging: Atiba Edwards

5. Food, Craft and Home with Phyllis Bobb of Reclaimed Home

6. So You Want to Start A Blog: A general how-to with Louise Crawford of OTBKB and Cathryn Swan

7. Eclectic with John Guidry of Truth and Rocket Science and Elizabeth Palmer of Midnight Cowgirls

8. Journalistic Ethics for Bloggers with Brenda Becker and Eliot Wagner

9. Blogging and Social Networking for social activism or business (leader TBD)

11. New Business Models for Blogging with Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine and CUNY Grad School of Journalism

12. Culture and Arts with Michael Sorgatz of Art in Brooklyn and Eleanor Traubman of Creative Times

Click to here to buy tickets.

Here is an excerpt from a piece Marian Fontana wrote yesterday for Salon.com after learning that Osama bin Laden had been killed by the US military.

Yesterday, the sky was a perfect, crystalline blue. The color blue that everyone remembers from Sept. 11, the day my firefighter husband was killed along with nearly 3,000 others. I remember how the black plumes of smoke looked against that blue sky, and I remember how that blue lingered for days and weeks and months as I attended countless memorials with empty coffins.

In the afternoon, clouds rolled in, the wind picked up, and by the time I got home, I was cold. I poured wine and put out cheese for friends in from out of town to attend a funeral. By 11 p.m., the first text came in: “Bin Laden dead. I’m sorry if it’s crass to text you this but I’m having real emotional reaction to this.”

There were more texts after that — friends sending love, thinking of my son, now 15, and me, wishing us well.

When my son finally went to bed, I reluctantly turned on the television and listened to Obama’s speech. He addressed the 9/11 families and our private grief: “the empty seat at the dinner table, the children who were forced to grow up without their mother or father … nearly 3,000 citizens taken from us leaving a gaping hole in our hearts.” He went on to talk about bin Laden’s death in Pakistan, and I found myself feeling the way I often do when overwhelmed, looking through the camera of my life as if it were someone else’s, hoping to feel something other than numb.

Read more at Salon.com

Photo by Tom Martinez